Greg Ploetz finished this painting after his health problems were in full swing. Former teammate Billy Dale has gathered signatures of Longhorns from the Darrell Royal era on strips and surrounded Greg’s work with them. The tentative plan, still being re-evaluated, is to auction the painting to benefit the Darrell K. Royal Fund for Alzheimer’s Research in conjunction with the Notre Dame-Texas game in September. (Courtesy Billy Dale)

My latest story on Greg Ploetz, who spent part of his childhood in Colorado Springs before becoming a starting defensive tackle for the 1969 national champion Texas Longhorns, is in the Monday paper and online here.

As the story details, Greg had severe dementia issues, died in May and last week his widow, Deb, was told Greg suffered from Stage 4 CTE.

This came after the couple’s brief stay in Colorado in 2014, when they hoped to be able to openly administer marijuana-based oils and products to help manage Greg’s dementia symptoms.

The picture above and caption takes care of one passage that didn’t make the story, and here are several others.

Greg Ploetz is at left at the September 2004 joint reunion of ’69 Texas and Arkansas teams in Fayetteville. Since I had interviewed many of the players on both teams and written a book on them, I was the “neutral” guest speaker. I’m second from the right. Between us are Benton County Judge John Scott and Arkansas kicker Bill McClard. Texas rover Mike Campbell is at right.

— The story quotes Greg Ploetz with the kicker: “…said in 2001.” That was before his dementia was full-blown. The way the story was edited early in process, it isn’t clear why that interview was conducted and it isn’t clear that I’m not borrowing from someone else (minus attribution).

To be clear, this is from my own interview of Ploetz for my book Horns, Hogs, and Nixon Coming. I would have been asked to cite the source of the quote if I was borrowing it from anyone else. But my citing of my own work as the source was eliminated. I assume that made some wonder why I hadn’t said where I obtained the quote — or even if it was correctly inferred that I had conducted the interview, why I was speaking to Greg Ploetz in 2001.

A few of the cassettes from my 65 interviews for “Horns, Hogs, and Nixon Coming,” including from my chat with Greg Ploetz

I retrieved the Ploetz cassette from the case holding all the tapes of my interviews for HHNC Sunday and listened to it again. It was wrenching.

— Greg thought he was headed for Oklahoma until Texas head coach Darrell Royal came to Sherman and took Ploetz and high school teammate Mike Dean and their parents out to dinner, both Sherman boys ended up Longhorns. “I said, ‘OK, I’m in,’ ” Ploetz recalled with a laugh.

— Deb agreed to be part of a Netflix documentary on the subject of marijuana products and managing dementia and Alzheimer’s symptoms, and returned to the Denver area to tape a segment at a Cherry Creek medical marijuana dispensary.

The former standout Colorado Buffaloes wide receiver in the 1990s will be the team’s co-offensive coordinator, receivers coach and recruiting coordinator, head coach Mike MacIntyre announced Tuesday. Chiaverini spent the last two seasons as Texas Tech’s special teams coordinator and outside receivers coach.

“Darrin brings an excellent expertise in the passing game to us from Texas Tech,” MacIntyre said in a news release. “Tech has a prolific passing offense, second only to Washington State in the NCAA, and we can draw upon what he did in Lubbock.”

Chiaverini, 38, will remain with Texas Tech through the Red Raiders’ bowl game on Dec. 29. He takes over for Troy Walters, who left CU to become Central Florida’s offensive coordinator on Dec. 4.

Chiaverini played with the Buffaloes from 1995-98, catching 97 passes for 1,199 yards. He was selected in the fifth round of the 1999 NFL draft by the Cleveland Browns. In four NFL seasons, he had stops in Cleveland, Dallas and Atlanta.

Colorado State Rams quarterback Coleman Key (12) throws a lateral pass to wide receiver Joe Hansley (25) (not pictured) who then threw for a first down against the Boise State Broncos in the second quarter at Sonny Lubick Field at Hughes Stadium on Oct. 10, 2015. (Andy Cross, The Denver Post)

Redshirt freshman quarterback Coleman Key was granted a release to transfer from Colorado State, the school announced Monday.

“We appreciate Coleman’s time here and his contribution to this team,” head coach Mike Bobo said in a release. “He has expressed his desire to pursue other opportunities and we wish him all the best in that pursuit. He will be with us through the bowl game and be part of this team before pursuing those options next semester.”

The 6-foot-4, 220-pound Key played in six games in 2015, completing 21 of 44 passes for 251 yards with three touchdowns and three interceptions.

Key, 20, redshirted his true freshman year. He was a three-star recruit at Broken Arrow High School in Broken Arrow, Okla., according to Rivals and Scout.

Even as a little kid, Christian McCaffrey had moves on the football field.

Stanford’s Christian McCaffrey holds a U.S. flag during player introductions before an NCAA college football game against Notre Dame on Nov. 28, 2015, in Stanford, Calif. (Marcio Jose Sanchez, The Associated Press)

There’s no doubt that Stanford sophomore Christian McCaffrey is the most versatile player in college football this season. The Heisman trophy finalist was named the 2015 Paul Hornung Award recipient Wednesday, which honors the sport’s most versatile player.

McCaffrey, who was also named the Pac-12 Offensive Player of the Year, broke Barry Sanders’ 1988 single-season FBS all-purpose yards record (3,250) when he totaled 3,496 this year.

“I am beyond blessed and humbled to be named the Paul Hornung Award winner,” McCaffrey said in a news release. “To be mentioned in the same breath with the award’s previous winners and Mr. Hornung, one of most versatile players ever to play the sport, is incredible.”

McCaffrey, who graduated from Valor Christian High School in 2013, is also a finalist for the Doak Walker Award, the Maxwell Award and the Walter Camp Award.

Christian McCaffrey (5) of the Stanford Cardinal runs with the ball against the Oregon Ducks at Stanford Stadium on Nov. 14, 2015 in Palo Alto, Calif. (Ezra Shaw, Getty Images)

Stanford running back Christian McCaffrey joined some elite company after being named a Heisman Trophy finalist. There have been just five players who grew up in Colorado who finished in the top 10 in the Heisman vote.

• Mitchell High’s Terry Miller finished in the top 10 twice as a running back for Oklahoma State. He was fourth in 1976 and second in 1977. The two who won those years? Pitt’s Tony Dorsett and Texas’ Earl Campbell.

Stanford sophomore sensation Christian McCaffrey was named one of three Heisman Trophy finalists Monday — along with Alabama’s Derrick Henry and Clemson’s Deshaun Watson — and the school captured the moment on video.

Stanford’s Christian McCaffrey holds a U.S. flag during player introductions before an NCAA college football game against Notre Dame on Nov. 28, 2015, in Stanford, Calif. (Marcio Jose Sanchez, The Associated Press)

Sitting in front of a television surrounded by his teammates, McCaffrey sat silently, hands folded, waiting with bated breath for the announcement. Former Heisman winner Ricky Williams, on ESPN, named the three finalists.

“In alphabetical order,” Williams says, “No. 1, from the University of Alabama, the big back Derrick Henry.”

McCaffrey and his teammates sit motionless, waiting.

“Two,” Williams says, pausing, “from Stanford.”

Without waiting for Williams to finish, McCaffrey’s head falls into his hands as his teammates jump up in celebration.

Former Valor Christian star and Stanford sophomore running back Christian McCaffrey has been garnering national attention and Heisman Trophy talk with his big numbers for the Cardinal this season. Here’s a look at how he performed last week and what the national media is saying about him and the Heisman race.

How did Christian do last week?
If there was any doubt in anyone’s mind that McCaffrey should be a Heisman finalist, he sure did his best to erase it. He had 32 carries for 207 yards and a touchdown, caught four passes for 105 yards and another TD, and then threw an 11-yard TD pass to quarterback Kevin Hogan for the hat trick. He totaled 461 all-purpose yards, setting a Stanford record in a 41-22 win over Southern California Saturday for the Pac-12 championship. Read more…

I traveled Sunday, returning from Minneapolis-St. Paul, the final stop on the Avalanche four-game road trip. Because of that, and also because the CSU media availability was rather impromptu (not complaining), I didn’t go up to Fort Collins to cover the acceptance of the bid to the Arizona Bowl and the fallout, including Mike Bobo’s grin-and-bear-it remarks.

Irv Moss wrote the story for the Post, touching on both Air Force and the Rams. That’s here.

I’ll leave the opportunity for extensive comment to those whose role it is to comment, but I’ll just toss this out:

Yes, it’s absurd that CSU has to play a conference opponent, Nevada, in Tucson. It shouldn’t have been allowed to happen and there is no excuse. None. But the reaction from the league office and commissioner Craig Thompson, with all due respect, was an exercise in contradiction.

The system is broken, there are too many bowls, this is an outrage …

Then in a separate release, the league bragged about a record eight teams getting bowl berths. One of them was 5-7 San Jose State.

The Mountain West essentially signing off on the creation of the Arizona Bowl was a major element in all of this, adding more slots. CSU would have been in a bowl regardless, and it’s impossible to imagine a scenario where a league matchup would have been necessary, without the new bowl.

Can’t have it both ways, folks.

Thompson also said the MW tried a myriad of things to avoid the league matchup, including proposing trades and financial maneuvering. We should take him at his word, and I will, but I’m surprised no trade could be worked out involving a lower-tier bowl.

I have not been among the too-many-bowls choruses in the past. If you think there are too many games, there’s an easy solution: DON’T WATCH THEM. But this — 40 bowls and 80 slots — has crossed the line.

It could have been worse for CSU. There are worse places to go to in December than Tucson — and some of them host bowls. And at least the Rams haven’t played Nevada this season and won’t again in 2016.

Former Valor Christian star and Stanford sophomore running back Christian McCaffrey has been garnering national attention and Heisman Trophy talk with his big numbers for the Cardinal this season. Here’s a look at how he performed last week and where the national media is ranking him in the Heisman race.

How did Christian do last week?
McCaffrey had more of a pedestrian game Saturday in comparison with the numbers he’s been putting up this season. The All Pac-12 first team selection carried the ball 27 times for a season-low 94 yards and caught three passes for 19 more. He finished with 228 all-purpose yards as No. 9 Stanford edged No. 6 Notre Dame 38-36. Read more…

University of Colorado’s Tory Miller takes a shot over Air Force Academy’s Zach Moer during an NCAA college basketball game on Nov. 25, 2015 in Boulder. (Jeremy Papasso, Daily Camera)

After Tory Miller bit an Air Force player Wednesday, the Pac-12 has reprimanded the Colorado Buffaloes sophomore for his actions.

Miller was charged with a flagrant 2 dead ball technical four and ejected from the game after biting Falcons’ Hayden Graham in the shoulder.

“Regardless of Mr. Miller’s frustration and emotion, such behavior is unacceptable and he is being appropriately reprimanded,” Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott said in a news release.

Miller released a statement for his actions: “I would like to apologize for my actions during the Air Force game. I would like to apologize to Hayden Graham, Air Force, my teammates and fans. It was a heat of the moment thing. I’m an emotional player, but I let my emotions get the best of me. I will use this as a learning experience and focus on helping my teammates and respecting my opponents for the rest of the season and beyond.” Read more…

Former Valor Christian star and Stanford sophomore running back Christian McCaffrey has been garnering national attention and Heisman Trophy talk with his big numbers for the Cardinal this season. Here’s a look at how he performed last week and where the national media is ranking him in the Heisman race.

How did Christian do last week?
Another game, another video-game-esque stat-line. McCaffrey launched himself back into contention after he had 29 carries for 192 yards, a 49-yard touchdown reception and he returned a kickoff 98 yards for another TD in a 35-22 win over Cal. And if you’re keeping track, he totaled 389 all-purpose yards. Read more…

Philo Germano gained 14 positions in the final 2,000 meters of the NCAA men’s cross country championships to help Syracuse upset Colorado. (Daniel Petty, The Denver Post)

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Colorado’s ability to win championship cross country races has long hinged on starting out slowly and then moving up throughout a race, a strategy the team uses because of the advantages of training at altitude and racing at sea level.

On Saturday at E.P. “Tom” Sawyer Park at the NCAA cross country championships, they tried to do the same, but the story of how they lost happened in the final 2,000 meters. Runners race with chips on their shoes that track progress at 2K, 5,200 meters, 8K and then the finish at 10K, which offers insight into how the race played out.

At 2K, Colorado was third with 181 points behind Iona (143 points) and Syracuse (97 points). Colorado remained in third at 5.2K with 130 points, behind Stanford’s 123 and Syracuse’s 90. At 8K, Colorado and Syracuse were tied with 99 points. By the finish, Syracuse had won 82-91 over Colorado.

Senior Pierce Murphy, Colorado’s No. 1 runner all season, was in 18th at 2K before moving up 11 spots to seventh, then three spots by 8K and one final position to third in the last 2K.

Let’s took a closer look at Colorado’s next five runners.

Senior Morgan Pearson
Pearson was 28th at 2K, 18th at 5.2K (10-spot improvement), 16th at 8K (+2) and 25th at the finish — a drop of nine spots in the last 2,000 meters and an overall gain of three spots.

Isotopes Park, adjacent to University Stadium, is the home of the Rockies’ AAA farm club

ALBUQUERQUE — Who would have thought?

If Colorado State beats New Mexico Saturday, the Air Force Falcons will lock up the title in the Mountain Division of the Mountain West Conference and, with one week still to go in the regular season, secure a berth in the league championship game on Dec. 5.

A CSU win isn’t crucial for the Falcons, though, because Air Force still would have its fate in its own hands if the Rams lose.

If New Mexico beats CSU, the division title will come down to next Saturday’s Air Force-New Mexico game, also in Albuquerque. If the teams both finish 6-2 in the league, New Mexico would get the title-game berth because of the head-to-head win.

In the wake of Air Force’s 37-30 win over Boise State Friday night, here are the Mountain Division standings as of Saturday morning:
Air Force 6-1
New Mexico 4-2
Boise State 4-3
Utah State 4-3
Colorado State 3-3
Wyoming 1-6

San Diego State can lock up the Pacific Division berth with either a win over UNLV Saturday night or a Nevada loss to Utah State.

Rams checking out the field

Before getting on to the CSU stories from the week, one thought: If Mike Bobo was New Mexico’s coach, they’d be “Bobo’s Lobos.”

Washington State’s Luke Falk has been the Pac-12 player of the week three times this season. AP Photo/Rick Scuteri)

Boulder — Colorado plays another prolific Pac-12 quarterback this week in Washington State’s Luke Falk, who has been the conference player of the week three times this season.

Falk has completed 391 of 556 passes for 4,067 yards, an average of 406.7 per game. He threw for 514 yards against Arizona and 497 against Arizona State. WSU leads the country in passing yardage per game.

Meanwhile Colorado goes into the game with longtime starter Sefo Liufau on crutches awaiting surgery Friday for a Lisfranc foot injury suffered against Southern California last week. Backup Cade Apsay will get the start.

“Their quarterback, Luke Falk, makes them go,” MacIntyre said. “He makes a lot of great throws. They’ve got excellent receivers; it seems like they’ve got glue on their hands on some of their catches.”

Washington State is a pass-heavy offense. The Cougars have passed on 570 of their plays this season versus 236 runs, and they rely on the pass even more than that figure suggests. They throw a lot of screens to running backs, and to receivers on short routes.

They lead the Pac-12 in sacks allowed, but MacIntyre said that’s more a function of how often they pass rather than how their offensive line protects Falk.

“He’s going to throw it to a lot of different guys,” MacIntyre said. “He does a good job of reading the defenses. The old cliché, ‘The best pass defense is a quarterback on his back,’ but he’s hard to get to. Their offensive line does a good job. We’ve got to be able to disrupt the quarterback somehow, some way — coverage, pass rush, disrupting receivers. They’re a good timing offense that gets the ball out of his hands quick.”

The University of Denver men’s soccer team poses after winning the Summit League Championships over Oral Roberts, 2-0, on Nov. 14, 2015. (Provided by University of Denver)

The undefeated Denver Pioneers men’s soccer team received a first-round bye in the NCAA Division I tournament, which was released Monday.

Denver (15-0-3) received the No. 13 seed. The Pioneers will play 5 p.m. Sunday at home against the winner of SMU and Utah Valley. Tickets for the game can be found at denverpioneers.com.

“I think the guys deserve the NCAA Tournament bye and home game,” head coach Jamie Franks said in a news release. “We haven’t lost this season, we’re focused, we’re prepared and we’re healthy, and I’m just excited for the guys to be able to compete at this level again. This is what we’ve been preparing for the last 10 months.”

DU is the only unbeaten team remaining in the nation. The team is also on a 29-match home unbeaten streak, the longest active one in the country and 11th longest in NCAA history.

Christian McCaffrey (5) of the Stanford Cardinal runs with the ball against the Oregon Ducks at Stanford Stadium on Nov. 14, 2015 in Palo Alto, Calif. (Ezra Shaw, Getty Images)

Former Valor Christian star and Stanford sophomore running back Christian McCaffrey has been garnering national attention and Heisman Trophy talk with his big numbers for the Cardinal this season. Here’s a look at how he performed last week and where the national media is ranking him in the Heisman race.

How did Christian do last week?
McCaffrey put up McCaffrey-esque numbers, rushing for 147 yards and a touchdown and making five catches for 42 yards. However, Stanford couldn’t hold on to its slight halftime lead and fell to Oregon 38-36. The loss will certainly affect McCaffrey’s chances at winning the Heisman.

How are Christian’s numbers on the year?
McCaffrey has 231 carries for 1,354 rushing yards (seventh among FBS players) and seven TDs. He has 33 receptions for 367 yards and two TDs. His 2,418 all-purpose yards are a Stanford record and leads all FBS players. It’s also second among all NCAA players, behind just D-III Hendrix’s Dayton Winn (2,527). Read more…

Mike Leach had a very similar record to Mike MacIntyre his first three seasons at Washington State. Now, in his fourth year there, the Cougars are ranked 24th. (AP Photo/Young Kwak)

Boulder — Some see Washington State’s rebuilding program much like Colorado’s. Coach Mike Leach is in his fourth year and was 12-25 the last three seasons. This year the Cougars are 7-3 (5-2 in the Pac-12), and this week they are ranked 24th in the AP poll, their first appearance in the top 25 since 2006. Colorado coach Mike MacIntyre is in his third year at CU, where his record is 10-25.

Washington State, which hosts the Buffs Saturday night, has a fancy new facility to help with recruiting. Colorado opened a new facility this season.

Leach sees a different similarity between the programs: Close games. But the Cougars are winning them, while the Buffs lose. CU has lost Pac-12 games by seven (Arizona), four (UCLA) and three (Southern California). Washington State has lost two conference games by a total of eight points but has won by seven (Oregon), four (UCLA) and three (Arizona).

“They’re kind of in the same spot we are now, from the standpoint a lot of these games have been kind of by an eyelash,” Leach said at his weekly media conference. “We’ve come out on top on some of them, but they’ve been close on all the same people we’re close on.”

Leach was asked if Colorado was more “dangerous” because it is running out of chances to win. After this week’s game the Buffs close their season next week at Utah.

“I think they’re dangerous anyway,” Leach said. “I think they play real hard. They do some good stuff and I think they’re explosive on both sides of the ball. They blitz more than most teams in our conference, and offensively they move the ball all over the place, got a little razzle-dazzle to them to keep you guessing.”

The Augusta Sports Council, which apparently has duties not connected to (cue up the piano music, please…) The Masters, Friday announced that Colorado State’s Hayden Hunt is among the 10 semifinalists for the 2015 Ray Guy Award, which goes to the nation’s top collegiate punter.

Affectionately (I think) known as “Punt Guy,” to former CSU coach Jim McElwain, who also referred to Jared Roberts as “Kicker,” Hunt is fourth in the nation with a 46.3-yard average. His net average of 43.3 yards is No. 1. Significantly, only one of this kicks has led to a touchback, so as first-year coach Mike Bobo often has noted, this isn’t a guy building his average by always kicking the ball straight down the middle as far as he can. Altitude figures into his average, of course, but not nearly as much as you’d think.

He had a 67-yard punt at Wyoming last week that went out of bounds at the Cowboys’ 5.

The Ray Guy field will be narrowed to three next on Nov. 23, and the finalists will be part of ESPN’s awards show on ESPN in Dec. 10.

Terry Frei graduated from Wheat Ridge High School in the Denver area and has degrees in history and journalism from the University of Colorado-Boulder. He worked for the Rocky Mountain News while attending CU and joined the Post staff after graduation. He has also worked at the Oregonian in Portland, Ore., and The Sporting News. His seventh book, March 1939: Before the Madness, was issued in February 2014.